Warm Sweet Potato & Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I’ve always been a little wary about the whole warm salad thing. The thought of hot lettuce has just never really whetted my appetite you know?

But a few weeks ago I gave it a try, accidentally. I was in a hurry, trying to make my lunch BEFORE the sun went down so I could quickly photograph it (story of my life right there.) As soon as my sweet potatoes and my pot of quinoa were finished cooking I tossed them on a salad with some avocado and pumpkin seeds – snapped a few pictures (thankfully that never takes me long) and then I sat down to eat…

Next thing you know I’m eating a warm/cold salad… and it’s good? Like really really good?

And that’s when I knew I had a recipe on my hands. The trick is to combine the hot ingredients with the cold ones JUST before you eat. This keeps the greens from getting too warm or wilted.

This salad starts with a base of crunchy romaine and baby spinach. The spinach is quite tender but the romaine is hearty enough to withstand the warmth. Top with warm quinoa and chopped up baked sweet potato, add a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, and avocado, and add a drizzle of spicy-sweet peanut sauce. Sit down and start eating ASAP!

I’ve eaten this salad a number of times now. It’s great with hummus instead of peanut sauce, it’s easy to take on the go (just package the dressing separately), and if I haven’t convinced you to try warm salad, it’s delicious served cold too! You can’t go wrong with this one.

This salad is hearty, satisfying, and nutritious – everything a salad should be and everything you’re looking for in a January recipe! Enjoy!

While the quinoa is cooking, wash and chop the romaine, chop up the avocado, and prepare the peanut sauce.

Spicy-Sweet Peanut Sauce:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk vigorously OR combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse.

Store extra sauce in the fridge. I like to keep mine in a glass salad dressing bottle. It may thicken up when refrigerated, I just run my bottle under hot running tap water until it softens back to a liquid.

This looks amazing, and I really want to try it, but my boyfriend is deathly allergic to peanuts so I don’t use any nut products in my cooking. You suggest hummus as an alternative to the peanut dressing, but hummus doesn’t exactly drizzle. Do you have suggestions for a nut-free dressing that would work with this?

You can thin hummus with a little bit of cold water or vegetable broth! It makes a great dressing that way. But I usually just thoroughly mix hummus into my greens even though it’s not liquid it usually does a pretty good job of coating evenly. I just put put the rest of the ingredients on top and make sure to eat it right away.

Wow this sounds so good. Love your food pics, too. I found you on Food Blogger Pro, which I joined specifically to learn more about food photography. Great job! And I can’t wait to try this salad – yum!

Thanks Taylor! I recognize you fromthe Food Blogger Pro forums! They’ve got some great resources that have really improved my food photography. Minimalist Baker has a food blogging course on fizzle.co with some great photography modules (it’s only 1$ for the first month and you can easily finish the course in a day). Thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you enjoy the salad!

Hello Brittany: The salad is very good but the dressing is amazing! I made it today and kept eating it for dinner too. For sure it is now one of my favourite salads. Now I will try more of your recipes. Great blog!